READING, PA – The Reading Royals improved to 7-1-0-0 at home and 3-1-1-0 against the Newfoundland Growlers this season with a 5-3 victory Friday at Santander Arena. Five Royals scored and Kirill Ustimenko made 31 saves to win his fourth straight game. The Royals have won seven straight games at home, tied for the longest home winning streak since Kirk MacDonald became Head Coach.
Now 11-4-2-0 (24 points, 1st place in North division), Reading holds a four-point advantage over the Growlers in the North Division standings. Friday marked the first contest of a three-in-three against Newfoundland (10-6-0-0, 20 points, T-2nd North).
Newfoundland goaltender Maksim Zhukov (4 GA) made 17 saves in suffering the defeat.
Reading and Newfoundland combined for five first-period goals with the Royals holding a one-goal advantage, 3-2, after 20 minutes of play courtesy of a strike from Max Willman. Trevor Yates recorded a short-handed marker five minutes into the game while Corey Mackin added a power-play strike midway through the first.
Despite being out shot in the second period, 13-4, Ustimenko stopped every puck faced and Ralph Cuddemi stuffed home the eventual game-winning goal under Zhukov’s pad on the power play with 36 seconds left in the second period. The strike made it 4-2 Reading. Cuddemi leads the Royals in goals (11) and assists (12) through 17 games.
Newfoundland forwards Justin Brazeau and Marcus Power had the Growlers’ first-period strikes. Zach O’Brien registered a marker late in the third period to cut the Royals edge to 4-3, but Garrett Mitchell scored with less than a minute to go with an empty-net strike to ice the game.
Forward Trevor Yates’ one-time slapshot off a Brayden Low pass broke the ice five minutes into the first frame to give Yates his fourth goal of the season. It was the Royals’ first short-handed marker of the campaign.
Newfoundland forward Justin Brazeau deflected a point shot past Ustimenko on the power-play one minute later. Corey Mackin answered with a man-up tally on a cross-ice pass from Thomas Ebbing before the Growlers’ Marcus Powers snapped a slot wrist shot to create a 2-2 tie.
Thomas Ebbing recorded his first point with Reading on Mackin’s goal.
Max Willman gave the Royals a 3-2 first-period advantage when he sniped home his second goal of the season from the slot with 5:20 left in the frame. Willman has registered a point in three of five contests this campaign.
Reading and Newfoundland have combined for at least five goals in all five matchups this season. The winning team has generated at least five goals in four of the five matchups.
Kirill Ustimenko has started five straight games and is 6-1-1-0 over his last eight starts. He was named runner-up for ECHL Goaltender of the Week last week, when he went 3-1-1-0 and started all four games of the Royals’ week.
Cuddemi and Mackin each own six-game point streaks recording power-play strikes on Friday. Cuddemi has recorded 11 (5 goals, 6 assists) of his team-best 22 points in the past six contests while Mackin tallied his sixth point (5 goals, 1 assist) in as many games.
The Royals will rematch with Newfoundland on Hockey Fights Cancer Night on Saturday, November 23rd at 7 p.m.
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